What Is Rate Limiting? How Apps Protect Themselves From Being Overwhelmed | Systems with Sana

You've probably hit a rate limit before. Maybe Twitter told you to slow down. Maybe an API returned a 429 error. Maybe Netflix kicked you off because too many devices were streaming.

Rate limiting is how apps protect themselves from being overwhelmed — and it's a critical part of how every production system stays stable.

In this video I explain what rate limiting is, the token bucket algorithm, why 429 is one of the most important HTTP status codes, and how rate limiting protects servers, fairness, and costs simultaneously.

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00:00 The idea: apps have limits (Twitter, Spotify, Netflix)
00:15 What rate limiting actually is (definition + problem)
00:30 The token bucket analogy (how it works)
00:50 Why it matters (3 things: capacity, users, cost)
01:08 Theme park analogy (real-world understanding)
01:20 Wrap-up / takeaway (systems stay stable because of limits)

#ratelimiting #systemdesign #techexplained #backenddevelopment #cs101 #api #softwareengineering #webdev

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